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PRONOUNCED BY APPOINTMENT 



BEFURE THE CITIZENS OF'GHERAW AND ITS VICINITY, 



ON WEDNESDAY, APHIL. 24, ^»50. 



BY 



THE REV. J. C. COIT. 



PUBLISHED BY THE TO^VN COUNCIL OF CHERAW. 



COLUMBIA. S. C. 

PRINTED BY A. S. JOHNSTON. 



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EULOGY 



ON THE 



hUl CHARACTER AND FUBLIC HRVICES 



OF THE 



HON. JOHN C. CALHOUN, 



PRONOUNCED BY APPOINTMENT 



BEFORE THE CITIZENS OF CHERAW AND ITS VICINITY, 



ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL, 24, 1850. 



BY 



THE REV. J^'C. COIT. 



PUBLISHED BY THE TOM COUNCIL OF CHERAW. 



COLUMBIA, S. C. 

PRINTED BV A. S. JOHN!?TON. 

1850. 



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EULOGY. 



Fem.ow Citizens : 

There are few that die who do not leave some behind to mourn. 
Natural affection, usefulness, dependence, or some other of the cords 
that bind the heart of niau to man, are broken. We are not long in 
this world before we suiFer, or learn to sympathise with those who 
weep under this kind of bereavement - 

Beside this, there are public demonstrations of respect usual, 
when men die high in station, and where the tribute is often rather 
to the office, than to the character of the dead. 

But we have come together not only to mourn for the loss of a 
" friend, a countryman, a lover ;" but also, moved by higher impulses, 
to render honour to the memory of him, to whom honour is due. 

In attempting to direct your attention to those principles which 
lie at the foundation of our political institutions, to the study and 
vindication of which Mr. Calhoun (in the love of his soul for truth 
and country) devoted his youth, manhood, and old age ; and in 
support of which he died ; standing, as I do, by your own appoint- 
ment, to speak of his fame; I may, in justice, ask of your candour 
and forbearance, a favourable construction, should any sentiment 
be uttered offensive to the opinions of any one of you ; especially, 
(I speak among mine own jicople.) when none in former days pre- 
sented a more fatal oppo.sition, (I speak of the stake of mine own 
life.) to Mr. Calhoun's fundamental policy than your orator ; and 
when now, having for a long time been Mr. Calhoun's political dis- 
ciple, I am to speak in his praise. 

Did I not firmly believe, (a faith obtained after many struggles, 
and over many and strong prejudices.) did I not firmly believe that 
as a political prophet, he has been a great light to the people ; and 
that his positions are rooted in facts and truths, in justice, equity 
and freedom, I could never have consented to occupy this honoura- 
ble place which your fivvour has this day assigned me. 

I believe his political principles to be true. I believe thera to be 
fundamental, I believe them to be vital to the constitution and union 



4 EULOGY ON MK. CALHOUN. 

of this country. I believe more ; I hold them to be the political 
bulwarks of our religious liberties and the pillars of a government 
of truth, justice, equity and law. 

Mr. Calhoun was born in Abbeville District, and remained 'till he 
was about thirteen years of age with his parents on the farm. Their 
intelligence, conversation, example, piety and discipline, (without 
the help of tutors or many books.) had trained and educated him up 
to that period ; when he left home for the school. At school he 
evinced great activity, energy and capacit}' of understanding ; an 
unusual thirst for learning ; and a special fondness for history. His 
application was so unremitting and intense that his health was soon 
impaired ; and he was obliged to return to his mother, with whom 
he remained 'till he was about eighteen years of age, when he again 
left home for the academy, resolved to pursue as extensive a course 
of literary and scientific study, as the institutions of our country at 
that day aiforded. He commenced the Latin Grammar, and in two 
years, he entered the Junior class at Yale College. At College he 
was marked for independence of mind, purity of morals, fondness 
for debate, power in reasoning, and for a clear comprehension of the 
elementary principles of ethics, politics and law, and for a singular 
enthusiasm in those studies. At commencement his theme was sig- 
nificant of his youthful aspirations. " What are the qualifications for 
a perfect statesman ?" 

On leaving college, he immediately commenced the study of the law ; 
and in about two years, the practice of that profession. He was soon 
elected to represent his District in the Slate Legislature; and con- 
tinued in the practice of the law, and in the Legislature, about four 
years. He left a reputation at the bar, highly honourable to his 
personal and professional character ; and while in the Legislature of 
his own State, stamped the traces of his image on the Statute book, 
to tell that he had been there, and that he had been there for good. 
In 1811 he was returned for Congress. The condition of the 
civilized world at that juncture was appalling in the extreme. The 
moral and political maxims of the French revolution, as to the dig- 
nity of human nature, " the rights of man," liberty and equality, had 
run their course through France ; convulsed and overthrown the king- 
dom : fused the social elements into a burning and devouring lake 
of fire, and melted the foundation of the pillars that had supported 
all the governments of Christendom. From out of that lake of fire 
had arisen that awful form of brass and iron, whose dominion was 
over all Continental Europe, (save the frozen North.) and who, at 
that moment, was contending with Great Britain for the empire of 
the whole world. 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 5 

Far removed from the arena of conflicting armies, our country 
was apparently at peace. But the minds of our countrymen were 
tossed and driven about by the warring winds of opposite moral and 
political opinions ; and their spirits were as chaff prepared for the 
fire. The country was divided into two great political parties. The 
one, if not sympathising with Napoleon, yet with his enmity to 
Great Britain ; and regarding his mission as the cause of liberty 
and the people, against hereditary ari.stocracies, kingdoms, em- 
pires and despotisms, heartily wished well to his star; rejoiced in 
his triumphs, and echoed back across the Atlantic the shouts of his 
victories. The other party regarding him as the scourge of God 
upon the nations : and looking upon Great Britain as the only earth- 
ly bulwark for the salvation of the world from the heel of this mo- 
dern Attila ; trembled at every rumour of his success ; for they re- 
garded him as the incarnation of enmity to truth, virtue, liberty, and 
religion. 

Most of our countrymen were at that day upon the Atlantic slope ; 
and though young, we were an important maritime people, our ves- 
sels navigating every sea ; extensively engaged in neutral commerce 
with all the world at war. And it was at this moment we were in 
danger of becoming the prey and the spoil of all other nations. 

The effect of the mutual policy of British and French diplomacy, 
(as evinced by the Berlin and Milan decrees, and the orders in 
council,) was to seize our vessels, and insult, impress, or imprison 
our people. The thunder of our cannon had never been heard 
abroad among the nations of the earth ; and our flag carried upon 
the wind no spell of terror or respect ; and imposed no awe in fo- 
reign ports ; to check the contempt, rudeness, injustice and vio- 
lence, that among barbarous people at all times, and among civiliz- 
ed nations in times of trouble and war, devour the property and 
people of a nation so tame and so weak that there is no fear of the 
thunderbolt of retribution. 

Such was the condition of the world abroad and at home, when 
Mr. Calhoun first stood before the American people, as one of their 
rulers in the House of Bepresentatives from South Carolina. 

Mr. Jefferson's policy to meet the exigencies of the times, had 
been the defence of the turtle. He wished to keep our people and 
property at home, within our own shell. It was the non-intercour.^e, 
the embargo, the gun-boat system. If he could, he would have made 
the waves of the Atlantic, flames of fire. He would have cut off his 
country and people from all intercourse with the old continent. It 
was the weakness of his administration that he endeavoured to do 



6 EULOGY ON MPt. CALHOUN. 

so. Mr. JeflFerson's mind was profoundly philosophic: yet had a 
vicious taint of idolatry, for his own idealisms and theories. 

Mr. Calhoun, who bowed with reverence to the sacred supremacy 
of truth, justice, and honour : in dealing with men and nations, in 
the high concerns of international correspondence, politics and law ; 
considered well the nature of the clay in his hands. He knew he 
was not a creator, but a potter; he therefore dealt with men and 
human affairs as they actually were ; and not like 3Ir. Jefferson, as 
though they were what his philosophy taught him they ought to be. 
Herein differed (as I conceive.) these eminent statesmen. Mr. Cal- 
houn received truths and facts as realities ; and acting on them? 
the works of his hands stand when the winds and the storms come. 
Mr. Jefferson's foundation stones were too often the phantoms of 
his own imagination ; and therefore the base of his works in places 
has caved in. 

Mr. Calhoun immediately took (what has always been characteris- 
tic of the man,) an independent position in Congress. He never 
descended to be the leader of a party ; and was always too high 
toned in honour, truth and virtue to bear the yoke. He denounced 
the non-intercourse system as tame and unmanly ; as ruinous to the 
character of our country abroad, to the prosperity of our people at 
home; and as palsying to their self-respect, and to a high spirit of 
national independence. As a people we had no fame abroad ; and 
no marked character at home. Yet in the cradle Mr. Calhoun's sa- 
gacity discerned the bone, the muscle, the foot, and the head, of the 
infant Hercules. The babe was not conscious of its powers, or its 
destiny ; but it devolved on those whom Providence had placed as 
tutors and governors of this child of promise, to awake him from his 
terrific dreams, and sleeping convulsions ; and Mr. Calhoun wag the 
man who blew the trumpet, put the lad on his feet, and the club in 
his hands. In the first speech he made for his whole country " his 
voice was raised for war." 

There arc in our day dreamers, as there were in the days of Mr. 
Jefferson, who dream that wars are wrong ; though their dreams 
come from a different kind of imagination. Some now hold that 
war is in itself a moral evil ; and that any degree of insult, injustice 
and oppression should be passively borne, rather than resort to the 
terrible ordeal of arms. 

I believe that among serious persons, this persuasion cometh from 
a confusion in their minds of the divine and human governments. 
The nature of these dominions is different and antasonistic. The 
one is purely spiritual ; its subjects the spirits and spiritual powers, 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 7 

the minds and the hearts, the thoughts, affections and passions of 
individual men. In this kingdom, where the spirit of the Lord reigns 
hy the sceptre of his word over the soul, there love to God and 
man, and all the Christian graces, flourish ; and all envy, wrath^ 
malice, resentment, contentious and personal fightings among the 
subjects of this kingdom, are inconsistent with its dominion. Here 
man has personally no rights; and his liberty consists in having an 
eye to see, an ear to hear, and a heart to understand and obey tlie 
uonl of the Lord. It is the kingdom of faith and patience, of pas- 
sive, unresisting, meek obedience to the word and the providence of 
God. Here is a communion, through the INIediator, of Creator and 
creature, Eedeemer and redeemed, Sanctifier and sanctified, sinner 
and Saviour, father and child. This is the kingdom of heaven ; and 
though in this world is not of this world : and where this dominion 
is set up and reigns in the heart, there can be personally between its 
subjects nothing but mutallove ; fightings and wars between them are 
excluded. Jesus answered Pilate, " my kingdom is not of this 
world ; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants 
fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." 

Here our master intimates that it is characteristic of the king- 
doms of this world that their subjects or citizens idll fight ; to save 
their king or sovereignty from captivity. And it was a doctrine 
held profoundly by Mr. Calhoun, that no earthly kingdom or State 
can maintain its proper rights of sovereignty, without there be in 
those to whom the sovereignty belongs, an understanding to know, a 
virtue to appreciate, and a spirit to maintain this royal prerogative, if 
need be, by the sword. The imperial or crown rights of a State, or 
of her people, involve the high moral obligation to protect the lives, 
the property and honour of the subject or citizen. Mr. Calhoun 
was appointed one of the rulers of the State or kingdom of this 
world. In these kingdoms, falsehood, violence and rapacity reign 
among the people and among the nations : and his country was about 
to be made a prey and a .spoil for them all. 

There are two forms of human government that have the divine 
sanction ; (the only true basis of moral right for the dominion of 
man over man.) and these two governments are the civil and domes- 
tic. The domestic government is recogni.sed and sanctioned by the 
word of the Lord, where the father and master bears rule over the 
siibiocts in the house, esiiccially over children and servants. The 
temporal sanction of this law is the rod of correction. In the hands 
of the civil ruler of a people God hath put the sword : not a dove, 
the emblem of meekness and love ; but a sicord, as a " terror to evil 



8 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

doers and a praise to them who do well." The State is not a bene- 
volent society, on a charitable foundation ; but the fundamental in- 
stitute among men, for human justice. For the right and lawful 
use of this sword they who have proper sovereign rights in States, 
are responsible to no human tribunal, but to God only. 

When we consider the condition of the world in arms, our own 
countrymen divided in sympathies with the combatants ; a large 
part of the Jeffersonian democracy for a sort of passive neutrality 
and non-resistance ; nearly one-half the nation opposed to war ; 
some few for a war with both England and France ; the dissensions 
and violent factions among our people ; the country without an army 
or navy of any adequate moment : without munitions of war ; with- 
out pecuniary resources ; if we ponder upon these things, and look 
at the young Calhoun with all the confidence that a conviction of 
the truth, justice and honour of his cause could inspire ; with a zeal 
kindled by a supreme love of his country ; and with an unwavering 
reliance upon a righteous providence ; calmly beholding and scan- 
ning all the difficulties and dangers that stared them in the face ; 
urging an instant resort to arms ; if we note the formidable power of 
the Federal party, and the terrible opposition of John Randolph, 
(who had then been ten years in Congress ;) if we attend to all these 
things ; and to the agency of Mr. Calhoun in procuring the declar- 
ation of war ; and then note the trials of that war which followed 
his movement ; we may understand the force of the expression of 
Mr. Dallas ; that the young Carolinan was the Hercules who took 
the burden of the war on his own shoulders, and carried it trium- 
phantly through to a glorious peace. 

During the war, Mr. Calhoun was chairman of the committee of 
Foreign Relations ; and upon him was imposed the duty to con- 
ceive the plans, and report the bills, for sustaining and carrying 
on the war ; and notwithstanding the unceasing and violent encoun- 
ters with a most formidable opposition in Congress; the tumults in 
the country, and the innumerable difficulties that encompassed his 
daily path : yet he was always found equal to the day ; calm, great, 
confident, unwavering ; not in self-confidence ; but reposing upon 
the truth, righteousness, honour and independence of his cause ; 
upon the virtue, patriotism and spirit of his countrymen ; and upon 
the favour of an overruling Providence ; he never, never fainted or 
despaired. He was not the man to " give up the ship." 

And now, fellow citizens, in all countries upon the face of the 
earth ; on every shore, in every sea : the flag of our country is for 
an ensign to the people, savage or civilised. It is a terror to evil 



EULOGY OX MR. CALHOUN. 9 

doers and a praise to tliom who do well. It carries upon the wind 
the charm of a solid protection, like a fortress of stone and cannon 
of iron ; it is a sure defence for the persons and the property of all 
who arc found under the shadow of its ample and glorious folds. We 
hear no more of the impressment of our seamen, the confi.scation of 
our property, or of insults and injuries inflicted upon our country- 
men abroad. 

Mr. Calhoun's character as a statesman was first exhibited in tho 
principles which he advocated, and on wliich he relied in the declar- 
ation and conduct of that war. National independence, prompt re- 
sentment for injuries inflicted up<iii the persons, liberties, or nro- 
perty of our citizens ; an unwavering confidence in the cause of his 
country, because it was the cause of righteousness, truth, liberty and 
honour. lie fully understood the lawful function of the sword of 
Ciesar ; and that every nation or State that would have their rights 
respected, and who would maintain their liberties and independence, 
must be ready (if all other means faii) lo maintain them by military 
power. 

From that day to the day of his death, he has manifested his 
faith in this last appeal ; as the sure defence of those rights of the 
State that are properly sovereign ; against the usurpations of an 
overshadowing central empire. He firmly believed that the constitu- 
tion and the nature of our federal government admitted of a peace- 
ful mode of redress for these usurpations ; but if that remedy failed, 
or was denied, and the federal government attempted to enforce 
their usurpations by military power ; he hesitated not about the du- 
ty of a State to resist by the sword ; even under circumstances the 
most gloomy and appalling. If Congress present to a sovereign 
State the dilemma of "slavery or death," he did not hesitate "which 
of the two to choose." He knew well that such is the nature of 
man, and the instincts of all human governments, that the more 
powerful in an intimate federal alliance, will, by a law, as constant in 
its operation as the law of gravitation ; the more powerful will, gra- 
dually, overshadow and absorb the sovereignty of the weaker. Hence 
he believed that under our federal system an incessant vigilance, a 
sleepless jealousy, and a promptness of resentment on the part of 
the United States, (in every attempt at federal enornachment) man- 
ifesting a knowledge of their rights, and a spirit willing to make all 
sacrifices necessary to maintain them; was the only mode in which 
the inestimable blessings of our political constitution and federal 
union, could be maintained, and handed down unimpaired to pos- 
terity. And I know no lesson we can learn from his history more 
2 



10 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

useful to our country, and more houourable to his memory, than to 
cultivate in our own niinds, and infuse into the spirits of our children, 
a sacred regard to the supreme law of the land, the federal constitu- 
tion ; a reverence for and prompt obedience to that which is law. po- 
litical and civil ; and a firm and conscientious purpose of mind, to 
resist, even unto death, at the call of the sovereign voice of the State, 
the reign over us, of Congressional usurpation, venality and injus- 
tice ; a dominion that never can reign over the spirits of living men 
until it has first written upon their foreheads the names of the mo- 
ral vices within ; dishonour, degradation, cowardice and infamy. 

When the question is simply one of submission or resistance to a 
dominion over us, which has no moral, civil, or political right : to a 
sheer usurpation, a naked exercise of mere arbitrary and physical 
power ; though it may be clothed in forms of law ; a free and a spir- 
ited people can never hah to choose. And freemen who Jtave coun- 
ted the cost of maintaining Federal or State sovereignty and inde- 
pendence, and know that in the last analysis, their bodies are its 
only bulwarks, and their own lives the stake ; cannot forget who 
those prudent friends are, that to rivet the yoke of oppression upon 
the neck of the weak, exhaust their eloquence, in expatiating upon 
the horrors of war and the tremendous consequences of resistance to 
superior power. Such are the usual topics of persuasion and argument 
in the rhetoric and logic of tyrants and usurpers. But did they 
avail before the days of the revolution? did they avail in the second 
war for our Federal Independence, the war with Britain of 1812? 
did they prevail in the days of nullification? '• The race is not al- 
ways to the swift nor the battle to the strong." There is a righteous 
Providence that overrules the affairs of men ; and the moral strength 
of a cause is worth more than legions of mercenaries. It was not 
an actual or oppressive infringement upon the personal liberties or 
the private property of the colonists, that caused the war of the rev- 
olution. But a declaration put on record, that the Parliament had 
a right to tax the colonies. Our fathers regarded this as a denial 
to them of the equal constitutional rights of Englishmen ; and as a 
political degradation. They therefore blew the trumpet and girded 
on the sword. The cause of the colonies was really the cause of 
British freedom Who can forget the noble and indignant reply of 
Lord Chatham to George Grenville ? " I a.sk when were the colo- 
nies emancipated?" "and I desire to know," said Chatham, -when 
were they made slaves ?" The cause of America was nobly vindicat- 
ed in the houses of Lords and Commons in Parliament. And we, 
my friends, if we shall ever be driven by federal usurpation, injus- 



EULOGY ON MR. CxVLIIOUN. 11 

tice and violence to stand to our arms in defence of the constitution 
of oui- common country, ai.d the sovereiLrn rights of the States, 
shall have in our behalf the hearty sympathies and eloquence of all 
the Chathanis in the North, and in the East, and in the West ; the 
swords of their Lafayettes will be drawn in the ranks of our volun- 
teers ; and we shall have the military aid of some at least of our sister 
States. The cause of State rights and State sovereignty will never 
be a desperate cause 'till the seed of revolutionary heroes is extinct 
in our land. ' 

Doubtless in all approaches to a final arbiter of a nation's inde- 
pendence, the horrors and calamities of war, more or less, distress 
the minds of all men. Some are greatly agitated and desponding ; 
and there is always to be encountered a highsouled opposition more 
or less powerful ; as brave, as patriotic, as wise as those who call for 
arras : and who yet do not see how the exigencies of public affairs 
can justify war. At such times also is to be heard - the bleating of 
the sheep and the lowing of the ox€n," the expostulations and cries 
of those who are by nature timid and unresisting, and of those who 
are born to wear the yoke. But the body of the people, intelligent, 
self-sacrificing, and patriotic ; with a deep and calm conviction of the 
moral necessity, the duty of war. look at the worst possible issue. 
To kill the body is all the mighty can do, and whether to save that 
it be right and comely to bow the neck to the yoke of the oppres- 
sor, to leave their children an inheritance of national degradation 
and vassalage, is an issue that every conscientious and honourable 
man may at times be forced to make. 

We have adverted to the principles upon which Mr. Calhoun jus- 
tified an appeal to arms in 1812, in defence of our whole country; 
we have glauced at the issues of that war At its close Mr. Cal- 
houn stood a prominent pillar before his countrymen and before the 
fl world : the master spirit in Congress. 

The condition of all the affairs of the country was then depressed 
almost to the point of ruin. The currency was rotten, the circulat- 
ing medium varying from five to thirl}' per cent, di.scount. Commerce 
anuihilated. Manufactures on the brink of bankruptcy. The revenue 
not adapted to the new condition of affairs. The army and navy de- 
manding instant attention. At this juncture, Mr. Calhoun was put 
at the head of the committee on the currency. In a report sustain- 
ed by his powerful reasoning and elorjucnce he vindicated the policy 
at the time of a United States Ba.ik. He carried his measure, and 
his policy triumphed over the diseases of the day. 

In 1817, he was called from Congress by Mr. Munroe to preside 



12 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

over the department of war; and in tins office he manifested 
the highest order of tahnt in administration. Where he found 
darliuess and chaos, he left light and order. He stamped the 
imaofe of his own mind on the constitution and laws of that depart- 
ment. There are now clearness, system, responsibility, promptness, 
energy, economy in the evolutions and workings of the system ; and 
so perfect and complete were his arrangements and rules, that the 
machinery of that department remains substantially as he left it. and 
moves on in harmony, fully adequate to all the exigencies of the 
country in peace or in war. He vindicated the policy of a small 
standing army ; as more safe for a free people ; yet organized on a 
plan that would admit of a quick expansion from 5 to 30.000 men. 
He ever maintained by his example and influence, economy in the 
management of public affairs ; and yet was for a policy of liberal 
expenditure, that was lor the good and welfare of all sections of the 
country. He was a fast friend of the Military Academy at West 
Point ; and his wisdom has been tested by the issues of the Mexican 
war. 

He was friendly to large expenditures, as becoming the dignity 
of the Federal Union, when measures of general and universal utility 
were proposed ; such as the protection of commerce, and the public 
marine ' the improvemeiit of harbours on the sea coast ; and in out-, 
lays for light houses, and fortifications for public defence against 
foreign enemies. 

In the department of Indian affairs he laboured with patience, 
zeal wisdom, and humanity, for the true welfare of the Aborigines. 

In 1824 he was a prominent man in the eyes of the people for the 
ofl&ce of President. There were also other distinguished- men, Jack- 
son, Crawfoid and Adams. Mr. Calhoun opposed the nomination of 
a candidate by a congressional caucus ; because he believed that the 
incumbent President would have such an influence in a body so 
constituted, that he would be able virtually to nominate his own 
successor; a power dangerous to tlie liberties of the country. Mr. 
Crawford received that nomination. The result was the election of 
Mr. Adams as President and Mr. Calhoun as Vice President. 

During the administration of Mr. Adams, a federal policy was 
avowed, and to a great extent adopted, which has been called "the 
American System." It has met high favour with distinguished men ; 
such as Mr. Adams, Mr. Clay, Mr. Webster, and others. It was 
based upon a liberal construction of the constitution, as to the powers 
of the federal government. Time forbids to examine the political 
philosophy of that system. We shall merely advert to some of its 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 13 

features, as they arc intimately connected with a condition of public 
aft'airs, wliich that system produced ; and in which Mr Calhoun was 
called to act a conspicuous part. Tlie doctrine had become popular 
in certain sections, that whatever policy or measures the President 
and a majority of both Houses of Congress deemed to be for the 
general welfare of the people of the United States (if not expressly 
forbidden by the letter of the constitution) the President and Con- 
gress had the constitutional power to adopt and pursue. 

Under some vague notions of his own sovereign rights, and of the 
powers of Congress ; and under the pressure of conscience of duty ; 
or an ambiaon to distinguish his administration ; the new President, 
in his messages to Congress, recommended and advocated enterprises, 
and works for public utility and eclat, upon a magnificent and impe- 
rial scale. High tariffs, profuse expenditures for internal improve- 
ments, and a national bank, were the three sides of the triangle of 
the American system. 

Mr. Calhoun perceived the monstrous iniquity and oppression that 
system would impose upon his section ; which was occupied by an 
agricultural people, exporting cotton, rice and tobacco : the produce 
given to foreigners, in exchange for the bulk of all the imports, upon 
which the tariffs were to be imposed. The benefits of the system 
were wholly appropriated to the sections east and west. It was not, 
therefore, for " the general welfare," (under the meaning of the con- 
stitution.) but it was for sectional welfare. The high tariffs protect- 
ed and fattened the immense manufacturing interests of the east ; 
the large revenues which the tariffs produced, were wanted by the 
west to make roads, canals and other internal improvements for 
them. The South was for a spoil for both sections. The system 
lasted long enough to prove that the west and east, by uniting on a 
policy for the common interests of both sections (high tariffs.) could 
fasten the burden on the country ; and that the proceeds of the cus- 
tom house would be permitted to cross the mountains, to fertilise the 
western wilderness. The tariff of 1828 is a monument of this con- 
gressional u.surpation and injustice. 

Nearly the whole South were opposed to the tariff from a gene- 
ral conviction that it operated against the pecuniary interests and 
prosperity of that section : there is an instinct in the minds of all 
sorts of people quick to di-scover such a tendency of legislation ; '-the 
ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib." But to re- 
sist the operation of laws, because of such effects, where the war- 
rant of the constitution gives validity to their enactments, is rebel- 
, lion, and the oppression must be extreme to palliate the guilt of any 



14 EULOGY ON MPv. CALHOUN. 

kind of physical obstruction to their execution ; and no degree of 
sufferin"- could morally justify armed resistance that would not 
justify a fundamental revolution of the government. 

But Mr. Calhoun was the man who (with others) saw that the 
American system was a virtual abolition of the constitution itself; a 
death blow to the sovereign rights of the States, and a degrada- 
tion of the Southern States into counties or provincial departments 
of the federal government. 

That a majority have the right to govern, became the popular 
cry, east and west, and of the national party every where : and as 
that majority was represented by the President, Senate, and House 
of Representative in Congress, mere enactments of the federal gov- 
ernment, (when made without the authority of the constitution) be- 
gan to carry to the popular mind the obligations of civil and politi- 
cal law : and therefore of moral law. They had the saction of some- 
thin"- majestic and imperial about them ; and to call in question the 
legal or moral force of the federal edicts, seemed to very many of 
our people, to have a taint of political impiety or of moral treason 
about it. In the meanwhile the constitution itself, the immediate 
source of all the lawful power of Congress, was forgotten. Con- 
gressional legislation had made precedents, and precedents had 
made law, and such law had formed a veil, which hid the constitu- 
tion from the public eye : and that veil had been well painted by the 
judicial decisions of the Federal Court. But Mr. Calhoun saw 
through that veil the majesty, the authority of the supreme political 
lawo-ivers ; he saw through that veil of our legal Moses, the sove- 
reign lights and immunities of the States, the makers of the consti- 
tution, the creators and lawgivers of. the federal government itself 
He read in history and on the face of the constitution what was 
written ; that this Union is a federal union of States, originally 
sovereign and independent ; that in and by the compact of union, 
(the Federal Constitution) the States, each, gave freely, (not surren- 
dered) to the federal government a number of their sovereign pow- 
ers ; and that all the rest of their inherent powers, they, each res- 
pectively reserved to itself, its State government, and its own peo- 
ple. That the union is one of compact and mutual covenants ; that 
its foundations were the precious stones of trutli. justice, equality, 
liberty and honor. He perceived that the constitution must from 
its very nature (as a league among sovereign States) remain dejurci 
0t per projn-io vii^ore, in its perfect symmetry and proportions, integ- 
rity, sanctity and supremacy ; while there was among our people a 
regard to the faith of public covenants, or force in the sanctions of 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 15 

religion. That nothing can be added to it. nothing can be taken 
from it, but by its own force and virtue. No current of Congres- 
sional proceedure or legislation, no line of decision by the supreme 
Court. No heretical commentaries, no apostacics of its professed 
disciples. No expressions of the opinions of its founders, and none 
of all other men ; that nothing can politically (we are not speaking of 
its bearing on citizens as subjects of law) that nothing can politically 
impair the supreme foi-cc, pr< eminent authority, and fundamental 
obligations of that written compact and treaty, the bond of the fed- 
eral union. It was intended and is a refuge for the oppressed, a 
defence for the minority from the encroachments of the majority ; 
the stronj-, moral and political fortress for the defence of the rights 
and sovereignty of the States, and the people. 

If we look to history and the constitution, to learn the nature of 
our federal government, our federal rights, liberties and obligations ; 
we shall see that they rest ultimately and fundamentally on com- 
pacts and covenants. To keep tJie faith of tJiese covenants^ therefore, is 
the very life, truth and bond of the federal union. The citizens of 
the States have two classes of rights. Federal and State rights as 
riders ; they also are under two kinds oiohligation^ as subjects of the 
Federal and State government. This union was made for the pre- 
servation of the States, and not for their destruction. It was 
made for that welfare of the States which is general, and common 
to them all, in opposition to that welfare which is local, sectional, 
geographical. It was made for the welfare of the people of all the 
States, in things common to them all ; the common or general wel- 
fare ; and not to promote the welfare of any favoured sections. 

Before South Carolina entered the Union she was a free, sove- 
reign and Independent State; when she entered the union it was 
not by compulsion. She (in common withtheold thirteen) freely gave, 
5 and specifically, certain of her sovereign powers to the federal gov- 

ernment. All the rest she reserved to herself To the freemen of 
this State belonged all her own citizens, subjects and territory, all 
the royal and sovereign powers and prerogatives, that kings, empe- 
rors, or any other mere human rulers, ever rightfully had, or 
could have in civil and supreme political government and domin- 
ion. The citizens were kings and subjects, rulers and people, each 
sustaining in his own person a double character, that of ruler and 
that of subject. As rulers the}- were bound by the high obligations 
of morality and honour ; to help each other unto death, in main- 
taining their royal prerogatives and rights as sovereigns. 

Suppose the States, instead of having been republics, had been 



16 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

kingdoms, and the kings instead of the States, had made the fede- 
ral constitution and government. Think } ou a king worthy of the 
office, would have submitted to the decree of a coalition of the kings, 
which usurped his right to govern his own people ? or taxed them 
Vt'ithout warrant of Constitutional law ? or deprived him of his title 
to the federal domain ? And if the same regal dominion and sove- 
reignty is in citizen freemen themselves ; should they not be as 
jealous of their rights, honor, and independence, and as prompt to 
defend them, as a king would have been? If the most precious and 
honorable temporal inheritance, is committed to the heirs them- 
selves, surely if they are worthy of their birth right, they will not 
profanely sell it for a mess of pottage. If they are not capable of ap- 
preciating the value of regal and sovereign prerogatives; they still 
need kings, or emperors, as tutors, governors, judges, and defenders: 
and are as yet unfit for the royal law of liberty. 

The rights and obligations of individuals as siihjecis of the gene- 
ral government, are the topics which have mainly engrossed the atten- 
tion of the rulers and the Courts of the federal Union. Lawyers 
have studied the constitution mainly iu its relations to the subjects 
of federal law. But statesmen like Mr. Calhoun have studied the 
history, genius, and principles of our federal system in relerence to 
the rights of the States, and the people of the States us rulers ; the 
sovereign rights and moral and political duties of the makers of the 
constitution, the creators and lawgivers of Congress itself Lawyers, 
by professional training, practice and habits, are apt to take a pure- 
ly legal view of the constitution ; and their reverence for precedents, 
their " stare decisis,'" their habits of thought, reasoning and judg- 
ment ; veil from their eyes the truth and glory of the sovereign 
prerogatives, which belong to the States, and the people. 

In religion a man of a legal spirit, who looks only to his personal 
relation to law as its subject, can never see the glory of the gospel 
which reveals the sovereignty, wisdom, justice, truth and mercy of 
the creator and lawgiver, iu the person of the supreme Lord Him- 
self, the son of man and the son of God. So iu politics a man whose 
habits of mind are legal; who ponders upon the subjects of law and 
tlu ir relations to it ; cannot see the sovereignty, righteousness, 
and imperial dominion, which history and the constitution reveal to 
be in, and of right to belong to, the Slates, and the i^eople of the 
States, as the lawful heirs of all the royal and imperial powers and 
prerogatives which king and parliament ' ad over the colonics be- 
fore the revolutionary war. 

We have had in the federal government, unfortunately, too many 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 17 

lawyers, and too much law, too many soldiers and too much military 
despotism, too few statesmen and political prophets like Mr. Cal 
houn, to preach the political gospel to the people ; and to defend the 
perfect law of their sovereign liberties. 

The rights of the States can never be defended by federal or 
national political parties. The past had proved that position to a 
demonstration. These rights must be maintained by the States 
themselves, or their own people, where rights, honours, or liberties 
may be invaded by federal usurpation. If they do not understand 
or are not willing to maintain them, if need be, by the sword, they 
are unworthy of them ; and their inheritance will be taken from 
them, and given to a people more worthy than they. 

Viewing matters in this light, Mr. Calhoun looked upon the 
American System as a policy of sheer usurpation and plunder ; and 
upon all Congressional enactments made under its auspices, as with- 
out any warrant of power from the federal constitution : and as 
simply and absolutely void : without any civil, political or moral va- 
lidity ; not laws but impositions ; and that the virtue and patriot- 
ism of our citizens was manifested, in coming together in convention, 
and in declaring, in their royal and sovereign capacity, these truths^ 
and in thus nullifying these pretended laws. 

I know it is said to be the duty of the citizens to bow to the 
enactments of Congress, and (if their constitutional validity is ques- 
tioned) to await the decision of the Supreme Court. This we ad- 
mit to be true of the private citizen, and his affairs, as the subjects 
of law. But we are speaking of the arm of a sovereign State, and 
of her citizens in convention, in their capacity of sovereign rulers : 
of their rigid to stretch forth the arm of the State to defend her 
own sovereignty, which she has never granted to all Congress togeth- 
er ; but which is usurped by a coalition of sectional majorities ; of 
the right of a State to be a State ; and to defend her own people 
from the \enality, rapacity and ambition of a ruling faction in the 
federal government. If there is any such attribute as sovereignty 
rightfully belonging to a State; i^ there be one, a single right, in its 
nature sovereign : then no other power on earth may lawfully dic- 
tate to her, when and how to use it. If it be usurped or its free 
exercise obstructed, by the federal government (and it cannot be 
denied that such a thing may happen) and there be no constitution- 
al mode for a peaceful redress, then the State has a sovereign right 
(responsible for its exercise only to heaven) to draw the sword 
in her own defence ; for to affirm, that she has a right of an imperi- 
al sovereign nature, and no lawful mode by which to exercise such 
3 



18 EULOaY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

a higli power, or to resist its infringement, is to deny the power it- 
self. It is to put the State, in a matter in which she is admitted 
to have liberty, under judges or governors, in that very thing wher- 
iu, if she bows to their authority, she must ipso facto renounce her 
own liberty. 

Col. Drayton, a member of the House of Eepresentatives from 
South Carolina, moved in his place, to amend the preamble of 
the tariff law ; so that it might tell the truth on its face ; he moved 
to declare in the preamble the real objects of the law ; that it was 
not merely to raise a revenue, for the public service, (as it had been 
framed to read) a power all admit Congress have a right to exer- 
cise ; but also to state that a substantive object of the enactment, 
was to protect domestic manujacturcs. His avowed object was to 
obtain the judgment of the Supreme Court, as a peaceful and con- 
stitutional arbiter, upon the question of the right of Congress to 
pass such a law. But the sectional majority rejected his amend- 
ment, and thus refused the opponents of the measure the protection 
of that Court, which was ordained by the constitution for that very 
end. That Court could not, in deciding upon the constitutionality 
of a law of the federal legislature, go out of the preamble for the 
motives and objects of the law. They were shut up to the record. 
Thus the same sectional majority that imposed their policy on the 
people barred the door of their access to the Supreme Court, bent 
(according to the universal instinct of power) upon having things 
their own chosen way ; and making their mere will and good plea- 
sure stand for law to their fellow citizens. 

It was at this juncture that Mr. Calhoun threw himself, and his 
State went with him, and fell in the gap, that had been made in the 
mountains of the constitution : to save it from ruin ; to preserve the 
federal Union ; to protect the people of this State from usurpation 
and robbery, and to maintain the cause of political liberty, and pub- 
lic justice, against the absolute domination of a sectional popular 
majority. 

And here it may be pertinent to pause, and consider the height 
and length and depth of the principles of political liberty and law 
involved in that conflict. 

Liberty, political and religious, is an honour, dignity and blessing, 
that all men are not capable of appreciating, enjoying and defen- 
ding. It cannot be strictly a personal inheritance, because a cer- 
tain degree of virtue, intelligence and heroism are necessary to 
comprehend its value, and keep it as a possession. The moral na- 
ture of man is so sensual, slothful and brutish : that a people in its 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 19 

bondage, where conscious wants are merely personal, sensual, and 
physical ; are incapable of political and religious liberty. Thus when 
the Lord stretched forth his arm to deliver Israel from the bondage- 
of Pharoah, the people fainted under the moral and rational disci- 
pline, that was necessary to qualify them for a national and civil 
liberty under the constitution and laws of Moses. Their very souls 
loathed and abhorred a. libcrtij of law \ that demanded self-denials 
and self-sacrifices. They longed for the yoke of Egypt again ; that 
after their daily tasks were done, they might sit down by the flesh 
pots, and indulge their personal ease and sensual propensities. It 
is so naturally with all people. None but an intelligent, virtuous and 
highspirited race, rightly value this treasure. Corrupt or selfish 
men, if they have a sensual or personal liberty, are on this point con- 
tent. To oftcr them the gift of moral, religious or political liberty 
is like " casting pearls before swine." They can see no more beau- 
ty or value in these treasures of the spirit, than a mule can discern 
of wisdom in the proverbs of Solomon. 

And here we would remark, that the nature of the virtue and in- 
telligence of which we speak, is the knowledge and right apprecia- 
tion of the high concerns of law, morality and politics. A people 
may be able to read and write ; be skilled in the ornamental and 
useful arts, flourish in commerce and manufactures : abound in po- 
lite literature, be adorned with the refinements, and revel in the 
luxuries of weath, and of the highest civilization, and yet in their 
political characters be as tame, obsequious, and servile, as the cour- 
tiers and poets, the artists, orators and historians who flourished in 
the palaces of Augustus ; and not only may they be politically de- 
graded, but morally and religiously they may be the " vilest, mean- 
est, basest of mankind." 

Again. They take a very defective view of our inheritance of civil, 
political and religious liberties, who regard them mainly as the 
trophies of our revolutionary war. To say nothing of the holy men of 
old, and prophets in Israel, and apostles to the nations ; who by 
their examples teach us to die, if need be, in the defence of spiritual 
freedom, and to maintain a good confession. To say nothing of the 
galaxy of heroes, statesmen and martyrs of other lands, and former 
ages ; who have laboured, suffered and died to win this crown 
of glory ! consider the sacrifices made by our own ancestors in 
Church and State. A great sum did our fathers pay for these lib- 
erties, though we were free born. Magna charta, the bill of rights, 
the Juibeas corpus^ the rebellion, the revolution in England, are 
epochs in British history marking the progress of liberty in the 



20 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 



State, And what treasures of experience and wisdom, truth and 
iustice, have we inherited in the •' common law," and •• law of par- 
liament" of England. 

In the Church, to go back no further than the epoch of the great 
reformation in the 15th century: mark the sacrifices and martyr- 
doms of the millions in Christendom, who to maintain the religious 
freedom of man from the dominion of man ; men and women (of 
whom this world was not worthy) choosing rather to die in the lib- 
erty of the gospel ; " that they might obtain a better resurrection" 
than save their bodies alive by sacrificing that pricelesss jewel of the 

soul. 

In the State, the conflict has been between the claims of royal 
prerogative, and the civil and political rights of the people. In the 
Church the struggle was mainly between the assumptions of the 
Hierachy. of divine authority to lord it over the consciences of men. and 
the natural, moral and religious duty and liberty, of every man in 
matters of conscience and religion ; to bow personally to the su- 
preme authority of his creator, lawgiver and judge : free from res- 
traint or responsibility to any mere creature or power under hea- 
ven • provided in the use of this liberty he do not interfere with the 
equal duties and liberties of others, nor violate the civil laws in 
reference to civil things. In our political and religious liberties, 
we have a venerable and awful communion with all that was holy 
and noble in mankind that has passed away ; and if not deaf to the 
voice of history, and dead to the most sacred impulses of the soul, 
we will not be insensible to the honour, the danger and the respon- 
sibility of keeping pure and unsullied, the spiritual and regal treasures 
of our bivthriiiht. The beauty and excellence of our political consti- 
tution consists mainly in this ; that it emancipates the Church from 
the bondage of the State (a condition of subjection in which the 
Protestant Churches of Europe are,) and it also emancipates the State 
and people from the bondage of the Church (a yoke which Roman 
Catholic countries have more or less to bear.) But happily the 
o-oodncss of the Lord, in overruling the builders when laying the 
foundation of our civil, political, and religious liberties, has be- 
queathed to us a liberty from both yokes of bondage. The civil 
power in our land has no spiritual jurisdiction; and the ecclesias- 
tical power has no civil authority or sanction. (I ask your atten- 
tion to these observations as I shall advert to these principles in 
an important bearing hereafter.) 

A peculiar glory of our federal constitution is that it is a written 
compact. "Thus and thus it is written." « How readest thou?" 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 21 

Here will be found the fire and the power of truth, for the hands 
of every faithful generation, to burn up and consume the chaff and 
rubbish ; which may at any time cover and hide the truth and ma- 
jesty of th3 supreme law of the land ; whether these impositions be 
the glosses of vain and ambitious statesmen, federal laws, traditions 
or usages, or federal adjudications. 

Federal laws and judicatures are the defences of the citizens as 
the subjects of laws. But the Sovereign States, and their people, 
the creators of the constitution, the makers and lawgivers of Con- 
gress, (in every matter touching their own sovereignty, or royal 
prerogative.) are their own lawgivers, judges and rulers, and must 
be, while a vestige of sovereignty remains in them ; '■'•quoad Jioc" they 
cannot be under " tutors and governors." 

Our constitution in politics, like the standard of our faith and 
practice in religion and morals, our fundamental law, is ivriUen ; 
and so plain that any honest citizen may hear or read and under- 
stand for himself: '• the wayfaring man though a fool need not err 
therein." 

Whether the federal government have aright or warrant from the 
written constitution, for the enactment of a law, may be the question ; 
and the humblest citizen of this country has the right, and it may 
be his duty, to put the question in reference to some enactment of 
Congress. '• By what authority doest thou these things, and who 
gave thee this authority"? Our constitution is not a matter of his- 
tory and tradition, like the constitution of England and the com- 
mon law. It requires not the oracles of the crown, nor the learned 
adepts of the temple, to tell us tulmt it is. For thus and thus it is 
written, and thus and tlius it must be. All who can read, may 
read for themselves, and all who can hear, may hear for themselves ; 
and all must at last judge and act for themselves, or in this momen- 
tous affair renounce their mental and moral freedom. 

Firmly convinced of the truth of these principles, Mr. Calhoun 
counselled his State to act upon them : to fall back upon the writ- 
ten constitution ; to read and understand her own rights ; and then 
to defend them. To shield herself from the ruinous effects of the 
sectional coalitions of the east and west ; which not only plundered 
her people of their property, but what was of far higher moment, abol- 
ished the federal constitution, dissolved the federal Union ; and 
practically reduced the South to the political degradation of worse 
than colonial dependence. 

At this juncture of public affairs, the people of South Carolina 
met in convention ; and acting upon the great political principles 



22 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

•which we have endeavoured to delineate, they declared and pro- 
claimed the tariff laws unconstitutional, and therefore null and void 
and of no force or efficacy in South Carolina ; and to defend and 
maintain their position they were obliged to fall back upon their 
arms. 

Had the federal government opened the ear to the just and in- 
dignant complaints and protests, that had gone up to Washington 
from our whole people ; there would have been no necessity of nulli- 
fication ; and if that government had respected her sovereign rights 
in the nullification of the tariff, she need not have girded on the 
sword. But her petitions and remonstrances were unheeded by 
Congress ; and her sovereignty made a mockery and a jest. 

Mr. Calhoun, at the call of his State, resigned the office of Vice 
President, and took his place in the Senate. It was a most awful 
moment. Against the position of South Carolina, were arrayed 
both Houses of Congress ; the solid North, East, and West ; nearly 
the whole of the South ; and all of one-third of her own citizens, 
who were in arms against her. General Jackson was at the head 
of the federal army and navy, dealing out death to Calhoun and the 
nuUifiers. "like an imperial Coesar." Scott the federal general was 
in Charleston. The federal troops and ships began to shew signs of 
life and motion : and the federal expresses were flying incessantly 
between Charleston and Washington. 

South Carolina stood firm. Her devoted sons in arms resolved 
to die rather than sacrifice the constitution, the Federal Union, and 
the liberties of their country. 

Nothing but her own deep conviction, that her cause was the 
cause of truth, righteousness, independence, law, and honour, could 
have sustained the State. She literally stood alone. All her sister 
States frowned upon her. Public opinion, upon the wings of the 
wind, was loud and distinct ; and had no words for her, but those 
of scorn, derision, and reproaches ; shame ! ruin ! disunion ! treason ! 
That crisis can never be forgotten by those who then lived. 

The State troops were standing in the tracks they had made from 
their feet ; enrolled, armed, equipped and ready for battle, " facing 
their own music," trembling for tiieir country ; but firm as rocks 
themselves. Then was the time when father was arrayed against 
son, and brother against brother in arms; wlien our women and lit- 
tle ones turned pale ; when our Christians fasted and prayed ; when 
" our rich men looked sad ;" and when none among us but " villains 
danced and played." 

The cause of the State had doubtless unseen and powerful allies ; 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 23 



•? 



and had federal lead or federal steel shed one drop of J'ahnetto blood, 
in this cause, thousands of patriots and heroes would have rallied 
round the banner of State independence. In the North, in the East, 
and iu tlie West, the Luthcrs and the Chathams would have prayed 
or have pleaded for our cause; their Hampdens and their Cromwells 
would have been fighting with our armies. 

The cause in wi)ich South Carolina drew her sword was not a nar- 
row, sectional interest ; she followed not the leaders in the sacred 
cause of political and constitutional freedom, " for the loaves and the 
fishes," but for the love of truth, justice, independence and honour. 
To submit to an arbitrary dominion, having no moral, civil or poli- 
tical authority; to bow the neck to such a master, is the very essence 
of political slavery ; and that was the naked ground on which South 
Carolina took her position in nullification. At that juncture the 
spirit of true liberty seemed to have abandoned most of the people in 
the United States, while the enemies were hosts. Many among us, 
like the servant of the prophet, were ready to cry in dismay, " alas, 
my master, how shall we doT' Had t]icir eyes been opened, they too 
micht have seen the chariots and the horsemen that were round about 
our political Elisha, and have known that " they that were with us, 
were more than they that were against us," 2 Kings, vi. 1.3 — 18. Not 
a State in this Union but some of her gallant and heroic sons pledg- 
ed their lives in the cause of South Carolina ; their names were writ- 
ten upon the scroll of honour, among the archives of the State ; and 
will go down as a refreshing perfume and a memorial to posterity. 

Mr. Calhoun was, in the Senate, regarded by all the world as the 
false prophet and rebel spirit, whose influence at home had brought 
his own State into a position of imminent peril and of certain dis- 
comfiture. He knew mankind would hold him morally responsible 
for the issue. Yet there he stood erect, fearless, calmly facing a 
'■ frowning world ;" upholding the pillars of the constitution, deter- 
mined if that perished to fall with the liberties of his country. 

"We will pass over his noble speech on •• the Force Bill." We will 
here forget all human agency, and recognize the mercy of an over- 
ruling Providence, at this instant of time, in opening the ears of our 
federal rulers, to hearken to the small voice of truth, honour, justice 
and independence. A compromise was proposed, and the obnoxious 
tariif law devoted to a gradual death ; the majesty of the constitu- 
tion was vindicated ; the doctrine of the supremacy of popular ma- 
jorities formed by sectional coalitions received a check ; and the 
American System, which had already received many grievous wounds, 
seemed now about to be consigned to the history of past impositions. 



24 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

A reformation iu the legislative government of the Federal Union, 
commenced with the restoration of the constitution. 

The reserved rights of the States, their proper sovereignty, and 
their federal relations as equals in the Union and by the constitu- 
tion, began to be recognized and respected. 

Several years now rolled on ; and we again hear the bruit of war. 
General Scott is upon the British boundaries ; there are skirmishes 
among the border men ; the boundary line is disputed : the people 
on both sides inflamed and in arms. The mind of the North be- 
comes greatly excited : and diplomatic intercourse with England 
threatening. The honour and dignity of the British crown are touch- 
ed, and the whole power of that empire is in battle array. Mr. 
Webster is in the department of State ; anxious for a peaceful and 
honorable adjustment of the controversy, but the Senate is chafed, 
sullen and doubtful. Mr. Calhoun is consulted by the cabinet, 
whether he will support their policy. He consents ; and with all 
his powers, vindicates the justice and equity of the Ashburton trea- 
ty. It is done. The calamities of a war are arrested, and the hon- 
our, peace, and interest of the country maintained. 

Again. — When secretary of State in Mr. Tyler's cabinet, it is ad- 
milted on all hands, that the consummate ability, sleepless vigilance 
and prompt decisive conduct of Mr. Calhoun, defeated the wiles of 
British diplomacj^, in reference to the republic of Texas ; annexed 
that vast and valuable country to this Federal Union, and in such 
a way and on such terms and conditions, as manifested a forecast 
and wisdom, the happy issues of which upon this whole country, 
and especially upon the South, will never be duly estimated by the 
present generation. 

Again. — Mr. Calhoun is at home, on his plantation, a private ci- 
tizen. Mr. Polk is President, the political firmament is overcast 
with dark and threatening clouds ; and the tones of distant thunder 
are heard muttering the sounds of war over the Federal capital. 
When distinctly heard the cry is 'fifty fnir forty or fightP Our 
whole people are aroused. The universal shout from the great West 
is for battle : her members in the Senate and House are blowing 
loud the war trumpet. The voice of J. Q. Adams is ferocious, pour- 
ing out threatenings and defiance to England. The war policy is 
openly avowed by the administration, who have a fixed majority in 
both wings of the capitol. The President in his message made his 
mark for the entirety of the Oregon treaty. The administration 
was committed. The whigs, a weak minority, dispirited and des- 
ponding sat appalled ! 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 25 

At the call of his country IVlr. Calhoun left the repose of home ; 
and ajjpearod again in the arena of the Senate. His very presence 
there inspired hope and confidence, in the drooping spirits of his 
countrymen. The vast body of the people were not disposed for 
war, in a controversy for the doubtful title to a portion of territory ; 
where merely the value of land was concerned, if there were nothing 
that touched our independence or honour. 

Mr. Calhoun comprehended the whole case. The day after his 
arrival in Washington, he gave notice that he would oppose an ap- 
peal to arms. He denounced the violent excitement among our 
federal rulers, on the subject, as absolute madness. He rolled back 
the angry billows of strife; calmed the troubled waters ; maintained 
the peace and honor of the country ; and put the question of the 
Oregon boundan*, in a train for an amicable and definite settle- 
ment. 

Long, long, had 3Ir. Calhoun, with his prophetic political sagacity, 
foreseen and foretold the coming of the Abolition Philistines that are 
now upon us ; and when our State threw herself in the gap of the 
constitution, which the overflowing waters of the American system 
had made, it was hoped by him that the repairing of that breach 
would be strong enough to resist this worse than savage invasion. 

The moral right of domestic government over slaves, stands pre- 
cisely upon the same foundation as the moral right of civil and pa- 
rental government. It rests upon the Divine authority, the only 
moral basis for the dominion of man over man. The form of polit- 
ical government is of human authority merely. The thing itself 
has the Divine sanction. In form it may be absolute or limited mon- 
archy, elective or hereditary ; it may be a republic, an oligarchy, a 
democracy ; or it may be of a composite form, partaking of the pecu- 
liar features of any or all the preceding, as our own perhaps does. 
But where a government, under any of these political forms, exists 
"rfe facto^^ there are tlie rulers and the subjects, the governors and 
the governed ; and the relative moral obligations of the rulers and 
people grow historically and actually out of this civil relation. — 
What these moral obligations are respectively, it is one of the objects 
of the Christijjn religion to teach and enforce by spiritual sanctions. 
Christian men, whether rulers or subjects, learn their moral duties 
from the written word of the Lord. That teaches them to ■' render 
unto Cttsar the things that arc Caesar's." 

Good citizens who know and feel not the obligations and liberty 
of the Gospel, yet acknowledge themselves bound in conscience and 
honor, to bow to the authority and supremacy of the constitution 
4 



26 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

and laws of their country ; among which are the solemn national 
covenants and treaties. They avow and feel the force of the moral 
bonds of truth, justice, equity, and honor! It was the distinctive 
feature in the philosophy of the celebrated Hobbes, iJtat the civil 
Imv was the only law for conscience ; that it was the moral law. 

Now a laio^ moral, civil or political, in its true definition, (as is its 
essence and nature.) is a rule of one who is a superior by nature or 
by office, to the subject of law : and to which rule, the inferior or 
subject is bound, in conscience, (in moral law,) to conform. 

It is, therefore, of amazing import to the peace, liberties and wel- 
fare of our country, what are the moral principles that govern the 
consciences of our rulers and people in the discharge of their civil 
and political duties. 

Notwithstanding the number of moral and political heresies, that 
have agitated the north and east for the last thirty years : notwith- 
standing the rotten theology that, to a considerable extent, has tri- 
umphed, and which, unless repented of and something better obtain- 
ed, will destroy the reign of all law. liberty and morals ; yet we 
believe the moral sentiments, openly avowed by Mr. Seward in the 
Senate, have caused many among his own people to pause and con- 
sider. The poison of the moral serpent is now conspicuous ; the 
liar and the murderer is no longer hid within the skin of a reptile. 
The confession of the high priest, witnesses and avows to the world 
that the old serpent the devil, the god of this world, who reigns in 
the hearts of the children of disobedience, is the deity they worship. 
The false prophet is unveiled, and abolitionism, in its moral, civil 
and political aspects, is developed. The subtlety, falsehood, ambi- 
tion and treachery, by M'hich this serpent wormed its way to the 
floor of Congress, is characteristic of the spirit who animates the 
system. And as to the position of its federal champion, after his 
avowal that no laws or oaths would bind him in opposition to the 
supreme authority of his own conscience, (the man within his breast,) 
in my humble opinion he should have been promptly impeached or 
expelled from the Senate, And if something be not done by the 
Senate or the Legislature of his own State, imblicly to brand his 
moral position with infamy, it will be a foul blot on the moral char- 
acter of our people. 

The States and the people of this country, in their fundamental 
law, require of Senators the religious security of an oath, that they 
^L•iU administer the government, and enact laws according and in 
obedience to the written constitution. And when a Senator rises in 
his place, avows his own shame, and confesses himself to be the mo- 



EULOGY ON 3IR. CALHOUN. 27 

ral monster, whom that oath and that constitution cannot bind, " ipso 
jacld^ he does religiously and politically cut his own throat ; and 
being in this sense a -felo dc se," he can be " dejure'^ no civil ruler. 
A man may say his conscience is his own supreme law, that it is par- 
amount to any other law, divine or human ; yet, if such a wild 
beast invades the abodes of civilized men, and his conscience prompts 
him to steal or murder, surely it is most just that he should be 
whipped or hung. But when a ruler over 20.000,000 of his civil 
and political equals, proclaims that the dictates of his conscience 
shall be Ihe laxo for them, the supreme law of legislation for a whole 
people, such a man is altogether a prodigy. 

The conscience of abolitionism professes to be tender, sacred and 
supreme. This would be no concern of the public, if such a con- 
science would stay at home and limit its dominion to its own sub- 
jects and owners ; but it is unbounded in its imperial aspiration, and 
aims to govern the whole country. Its present mission is to break 
all the cords of divine, constitutional, civil and domestic law, by the 
power of which the servants of this country are kept in their subor- 
dination in our system. It is a savage, unjust, unnatural, diabolical 
warfare upon the Southern States. In this crusade the dictates of 
their consciences have demanded of abolitionists all manner of coa- 
litions with political parties of any and every creed, that their own 
Aaron and Moses might obtain priestly and political dominion 
in the civil government of this country. To achieve this purpose 
that conscience dictates to its subjects; to take the solemn oath re- 
quired by the constitution : to maintain and govern according to 
that fundamental law; and to defend the South from foreign inva- 
sion and domestic violence: and the same conscience dictates to 
these same abolitionists, after they become sworn rulers, to disregard 
the constitution ; to become foreign invaders, and to ferment domes- 
tic insurrections at the South themselves; to dissolve the Federal 
Union, and to destroy the liberty of ourselves, and of our posterity. 

A conscience where moral dictates demand oaths t<» be taken, to 
the very end that they may be broken, is the conscience that, with 
its forehead of brass rises and denounces the Southern people for 
immorality ; for governing their own servants ; keeping their own 
compromises, covenants and oaths; for maintaining the integrity 
and supremacy of the federal constitution, the sanctity of law, and 
the freedom and equality of those who already are free and equal. 

That a vile faction, with such moral and political principles, should 
have had in their grasp, for 07ie moment, the political power of the 
north, east and west in Congress, is a startling fact that causes the 
most g!oomy and desponding foreboding.s. 



28 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

The sectional coalitions on the tariffs, and on abolitionism, are 
unmistakeable demonstrations ; that the written constitution, the 
faith of federal covenants, and the oaths of political rulers, are mu- 
niments too feeble to keep out the rapacious reign of Mammon, and 
the fanatical empire of the monk and the crusader. " Thieves du 
break in and steal," and the treasures of our popular liberties and 
State rights are yet exposed as a prey to political wolves, in sheep's 
or in dog's clothing. Therefore it is that Mr. Calhoun, with his 
dying breath, demanded of all the people, and of all the States, fur- 
ther and stronger bulwarks in the constitution for the South; not 
further grants or gifts of what we have not already ; not a new bar- 
gain, but better and further security^ that what?s due us by the bond 
signed, sealed and delivered by them all, be honestly 2^(iid. That 
justict be done before we listen a moment to any talk of compro- 
mises. The things that touch a people's honor and independence, 
do not admit of compromise. That is now the true issue and the 
momentous question before the people of this country. 

The cause of the South is now vastly stronger than when South 
Carolina alone confronted the physical power of the federal govern- 
ment, and achieved a great moral victory for the constitution, laws 
and liberties of the whole country. All the legal objections against 
the Tariff of 1828, lay with their full force against the Wilmot Pro- 
viso, and against any other measure or policy, whatever may be its 
name or form, but the object of which may be to effect substantially 
what was the aim, scope and end of the Proviso, to wit : to degrade 
the Southern States, to put them under the ban, to deny to them 
the dignity and equality duo to the other States in the Federal 
Union, and to rob them of all share in the possession of the 
common federal territories. These are the monstrous propositions 
of the present coalition of the north, east and west, against the 
equal rights and liberties of the South. And what aggravates the 
injustice and insult of such a policy is, that -our masters make it 
with them a matter of conscience ! 

Nothing but a strong leaven of Luciferian morality could possi- 
bly have so polluted and inflamed the consciences of the people in 
those sections. Old time robbers and pii'ates. though they may 
have had some plaster for their consciences, were not wont to plead 
the authority of conscience in defence of their enterprises ; it was 
not a deep sense of moral obligation that constrained them to lay 
their violent hands upon the things that were their neighbors' ; it 
was their love of plunder. With our disinterested and benevolent 
rulers, it is the mere love of the caption. They coolly propose to 



EULOGY ON ME. CALHOUN. 29 

take all our inherilance in the political family, and (not seize it ex- 
clusively for their own use,) tut (their Southern brethren excepted) 
to give it as a benevolence, to any of the families of the whole 
world, who choose to come and take possession ! 

It may well be asked by what authority do they propose to do 
these things? The answer is, by the authority of public opinion 
at the north, east and west ; by the sanction of the moral sentiment 
of a '■ considerable portion of mankind ;" and by the power of the 
majority. The breath of the answer blows away every vestige of 
the Federal Constitution : and if the scheme were consummated, it 
would be a moral dissolution of the Federal Union. 

It seems to be the received doctrine of the dominant majority, 
that if a given power is granted to be in Congress, that a majority 
of both houses have the moral right to tise that power as they please. 
That instead of being bound by the highest obligations known 
among men, in the fear of God, in good faith, in truth, justice and 
equity, to use the high powers committed to their trust, for the com- 
mon welfare of all the people and States who are subject to the fed- 
eral government, that there is no moral restraint to their own wills^ 
or rather to the arbitrary wills and absolute domination of those 
whom our federal rulers are pleased to regard as their peculiar con- 
stituents. In other words, and briefly, that the ici/i of the majori- 
ty is the law for the minority. Legislation according to this doc- 
trine would not be usurpation, but it would be the essence of 
tyranny — an oppression which, if it do not justify so prompt and 
decided a resistance, must be firmly and effectually repelled, or no- 
thing of constitutional or legal justice is left us, but the mockery of 
the name and the form. Those of you who have read with care the 
late Congressional debates, must have been struck with astonishment 
at the avowal of the crude and arbitrary doctrines of some of our 
federal rulers The manner in which they refer to the powers of 
Congress, over the district of Columbia, the dock yards, forts, arse- 
nals, &c. is an instance in point. The tendency to absolute domi- 
nation is most apparent in the history of the " Wilmot" and its 
substitutes. Our federal masters twi.st the screw of oppression to 
the last point oi practical endurance ; they watch their victim, and 
tighten or relax their hold, as the patient manifests symptoms of 
submission or resistance ; as though their rightful power extended 
to a degree of oppression and insult — a hair breadth short of the 
point of armed opposition, or the dis.'^olution of the Union. '• By 
mer saith the Lord, '• Kings rule, and Princes decree ywi^ic^e." The 
political powers our federal rulers do Jiave, surely ihey are under 
moral obligations tonse justly. 



30 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

AVhen that pcwcr which actually reigns in Congress, is a fixed 
majority, made up of sectional coalitions ; and when the direction 
of that power is dictated by public opinion, (a wind blowing from 
the same sections.) then all the moral, legal and constitutional 
bonds of the Federal Government and Union, are virtually dissolv- 
ed and the government becomes one of mere sufferance on the part 
of the States and people ; and we, the citizens of this country, have 
no just government over us but that of our own State. If the type 
of oppression be usurpation or tyranny, in either case, it will be ne- 
cessary to consider and weigh well the condition of afiairs, that we 
may keep our consciences clear ; and whether we live or die, that we 
be found in the path of constitutional, civil and moral law. in the 
way of our dutij. 

As all our present troubles spring from the slavery and majority 
questions, and as the moral character of slavery is at the root of 
that matter, it may be pertinent to coi.sider for a moment that 
question : and also what is the real value and weight, politically and 
morally, of any numerical majority in our federal legislative gov- 
ernment. 

History, sacred and profane, testifies of the existence of slavery 
from the earliest antiquity. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were slave- 
holders. The Jews, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all had the 
institution of slavery among them, and neither sacred nor profane 
history records the sentiment or judgment of mm-al evil or sin in the 
institution. Its lawfulness, or the moral right of this form of hu- 
man government, has not been called in question among mankind in 
Church or State, till this generation. Neither Mcses nor the pro- 
phets ; neither our Lord nor his Apostles, though they were living 
among masters and slaves, ever denounced the institution as a moral 
evil. Neither the African, Asiatic, Greek or Roman Churches, ever 
denounced it, though it was an institution in the midst of them all. 
No Protestant Church has ever condemned it ; no decrees of Eccle- 
siastical councils, and no traditions of the Church, have ever con- 
demned it as a moral evil. 

The first notice I can find in history of abolition doctrine, is just 
100 years ago. In 1750, John Woohnan and Anthony Benezet, 
two quakers at the north, seemed fully possessed of the abolition 
spirit, and in 175 1 the Friends or Quakers in America, abolished 
slavery in their communion, and excommunicated slaveholders ; up 
to that epoch the Friends had not a knowledge of the moral evil of 
slavery. But as they are a sect who avow the authority of the "in- 
ward light," in matters of morals and religion ; and as they did not 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 31 

profess to have made their discovery from the things written in 
Scripture, Christian denominations who made the vrkten v:ord of 
God their only rule of faith and morals, paid no attention to the 
dreams of the Quakers. 

About forty years from the time of the Apostleship of Woolman 
and Benezet, Clarksou and Wilberforce began to declaim in Eng- 
land, against the slave trade. That (notice) is only about 60 years 
ao-o. Mr. Wilberfoice first introduced this subject into the Impe- 
rial Parliament in 1787. He then received no favor, but that man 
annually renewed his motion for 17 years, till in 1804 the African 
slave trade was abolished by the British Parliament. During those 
years Wilberforce, Ciarkson, and the abolitionists were agitating the 
Churches and the country with their schemes. The Africans were 
then, and arc yet, a people heathen, and exceedingly degraded for 
heathen. They lived mostly in little tribes, often at war, and mu- 
tually making slaves of their captives ; so that in Africa they exist 
(the great body of them) in a condition of slavery to the head men 
or Kings of these petty African kingdoms. The Portuguese and 
Spaniards first commenced this trade, with the view to the cultiva- 
tion of their American colonics. The English followed their lead. 
The slaves were bought by the European traders of their masters in 
Africa. Whatever may be said of the moral character of that 
traffic, its effects have been providentially overruled for good to the 
descendants of the imported Africans. They have been raised from 
heathenism, idolatry, (some of them from cannibalism,) from extreme 
degradation and wretchedness, and from slavery to men as degraded 
and vile, to a position where they inherit and enjoy more physical, 
social, moral and religious blessings, than ihe jjoor of any Christian 
nation in the world. 

The British having, themselves, abolished the slave trade, began 
to exert their influence with all other nations to abolish the trade 
also. The penalty of their laws was. first, a fine ; then the traffic 
was declared a felony ; then piracy, with the death-penalty. Brit- 
ish diplomacy has kept agitating all the cabinets in Christendom, till 
nearly all have united in pronouncing this traffic a crime against the 
laws of all civilized nations. The fleets of the nations, (our own 
not excepted,) with the British in the lead, have for years, at an im- 
mense cost of life and money, been employed upon the African coast 
to break up and totally do.'^troy this trade. 

Formerly, when the traffic was lawful, and the traders fair and 
honest men, there was doubtless much cruelty and suffering connect- 
ed 'vith the business. But now, when none but pirates and desper- 



32 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

adoes are willing to embark iu the trade, the evils to the captives are 
greatly aggravated ; and instead of suppres-sing the trade, it is car- 
ried on now to a greater extent, and under more cruel auspices, than 
before Wilberforce began his agitation. 

Sir Fowell Buxton, a member of Parliament, and a leading abo- 
litionist, in a report to the House of Commons, stated that it was 
an axiom at the Custom House, that no illicit trade could be sup- 
pressed, if its profits were eipal to 30 per cent. That French, Span- 
ish, Portuguese aud American cruisers were incessantly engaged in 
the African slave trade. He affirms that 80,000 slaves are annually 
taken to Brazil ; 60,000 to Cuba : 10,000 to other places ; that 150,- 
000 are annually brought to the continent and islands of America ; 
double the number that were ever imported in any one year, before 
Wilberforce commenced his abolition measures. But the British 
Parliament have pushed their policy beyond the slave trade : 20,- 
000,000 pounds sterling has Parliament appropriated to pay British 
subjects for their slaves, which the government have emancipated in 
the West Indies. Other European nations (instigated by the Brit- 
ish,) have followed their example, and liberated the African slaves 
in their American colonies. British diplomacy ; the British press, 
religious and secular ; the British Churches, and abolition societies ; 
the British Statesmen, orators, poets and literati; the British peo- 
2jle^ have succeeded in manufacturing a public opinion among the 
Christian nations, that the institution of slavery is sinful, a dis- 
honor and a blot to any country. It is an historical fact that the 
present moral sentiments aud religious feelings of '' a considerable 
portion of mankind," in reference to slavery, are of British manu- 
facture. The people of this country at the north, at the east, and 
at the west, have been poisoned by this false and anti-christian mo- 
rality ; ■ the minds of our fellow-citizens in those sections, have be- 
come exceedingly inflamed against slavery ; and though there are 
there vast numbers of Christian people, who know the thing is not 
sinful, yet to a man they are, in their feelings and sympathies, op- 
posed to the institution. They think it is a stigma upon the face of 
this whole country, in the eyes of the civilized world ! 

If the British Statesmen had wished a wedge to split asunder 
this country, and diestroy the prosperity of a people whom they have 
dreaded more than any people on earth, as their rivals in commerce 
and manufactures, they could not have contrived a more effective 
instrument to accomplish such an object, than this British abolition 
morality. A people whom they never could subdue by their arms, 
they have conquered by their moral machinery and manufacture, so 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 3S 

that the people nox-th, cast and west, whom British cannon could 
not move, are now trembling like the leaves of the aspen, at the 
breath of British opinion ! 

It is necessary, therefore, for the South to defend herself before 
the whole world ; and she falls back on the immoveable bulwarks 
of Scripture, and upon the moral sentiments of all mankind, in the 
Church and out of it, from the time of Abraham to the time of the 
Apostleship of John Woolman and Anthony Benezet. 

There have been at all times, (yet never so many as in modern 
times,) theories broached concerning the dignity of human nature, 
'• the rights of man," liberty, equality, fraternity, &c. which, if true, 
would, by consequence, destroy the institution of slavery, and all 
other lawful dominion of man over man. Wild theories abounded 
in the days of our revolution, and wilder still in that of the French, 
which injured the men of those generations, and whose malign in- 
fluences are yet too much felt in our day. The world is now full of 
such cruelties, fooleries, and vain imaginations that deceive, hurt or 
ruin not a few. 

But wc must leave dreamers and their fancies, and hearken to 
the word of God. 

Such is the condition of mankind, that all nations have among 
them t/ic poor, " the hewers of wood and the drawers of water." '• The 
poor (said Jesus,) you have always wuh you." We know in the nat- 
ural, and in the spiritual, the body is not one member but many ; 
1 Cor. sii. 14 — 27. We believe it should be so also in the political 
and social bodies ; " and that the eye cannot say to the hand, I have 
no need of thee ; nor again the head to the foot, I have no need of 
thee." Toward the institution of slavery the Lord, from the time 
of Abraham, hath, in his wisdom and mercy, showed great favour. 
It is an establishment not merely for the benefit of the master, but 
a permanent house in the social system for the protection, support 
and comfort of the poor. Under the patriarchal, legal and gospel dis- 
pensations, this institution of domestic government is among those 
" powers that are ordained of God." Bom. siii. 1. 

I. The covenant with Abraham expressly included children and 
slaves, Gen. xvii. 12, 13. "He that is born in thy house, and he 
that is bought with thy money, must needs be circumcised." Thus 
with Abraham and the fathers, slavery was not merely tolerated, 
as on the footing of a mere suflFerance, an error that was winked 
at, but it was a law ordained of the Lord. 

II. So under Moses, in the time of the theocracy, the form of domes- 
tic government over slaves, the institution of slavery, was established 

5 



34 EULOGY OX MR. CALHOUN. 

by the divine lawgiver : and while hirelings were treated as heathen and 
strangers ; while they had no interest in the family, Church or State, 
the slaves in Israel were protected, and had the blessings and se- 
curities of domestic, civil and ecclesiastical institutions, and an in- 
terest in the promises of the everlasting covenant. The hireling 
had a right to nothing, but the wages of his day. The slave had a 
moral and civil right for life, a birth right, an inheritance of "bread 
to eat and raiment to put on." 

III. Under the gospel, slavery was treated by our Saviour as an 
existing and lawful institution, and by his apostles he enforces the 
relative duties of masters and slaves ; where that relation subsisted 
among his disciples. Thus, servants are commanded to be subject 
to their masters, with all fear, not only to " the good and gentle," 
but '•'•also to the froward,'' for this is acceptable to God. 1st. Pet. ii. 
18 — 21. Here it is written down '•'•in totidem r^yfiis" that this 
service "is acceptable to God." Eph. vi. 5 — 10. The rightful do- 
minion of the master, is also expressly written down. Masters give 
unto your servants, that which is just and equal, knowing that ymt 
also have a master in "Heaven." Col. iv. 1. Here Scripture recogni- 
ses masters as such to be tlie servatils of the Lord ; and if we are 
in our mastcrdom^ His servants, who may lawfully, or safely, come 
between Him and us in this matter ? " Who art thou that judges t 
another's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth." James, 
iv. 11 — 13. Rom. xiv. 4. Thus in all the forms of the divine econ- 
omy, in his providence over his people, under the patriarchal, legal 
and gospel dispensations, the institution of slavery has been sanc- 
tified by the word of the Lord. 

The rightful dominion, dignity, and authority of the master is 
then plainly established by the written word of God. The master's 
office is a high and holy trust ; to God must he give an account, like 
all other human rulers; and so must our servants, like all other sub- 
jects of human government, give an account of their obedience and 
fidelity. 

As to the execrations of abolitionists, they may see their features 
portrayed in Scripture, by the pen of apostles. In the cpisile of 
Jude, in 2d. Pet. 2d. chap, and also in 1st. Timothy, 6th. chap. 1 — 6 
verses. 

Every one born a slave in this country has a moral and civil 
birthright to food and clothing, care and support in sickness, and in 
old age. If the master becomes j^oor, and unable to do his duty, 
the arm of the law takes his servant and puts him into the hands 
of one abler to support him. The poor of Europe, and especially of 



EULOCY ON MR. CALHOUN. 35 

EDglaud aud Ireland ; the poor of the North, have no earthly inher- 
itance ; many of them are thieves, vagabonds, idlers, many sick ; 
they are kept alive in public poor establishments; in some countries 
at an enormous expense, which constitutes a heavy tax on the indus- 
try and thrift of the people. There are no idlers, vagabonds, drun- 
kards, among our servants ; they arc kept in their places, and made 
to work. 

The Lord who knowetli what is in man, and ncedeth not to be 
told thai, in the pecuniary relation of slaves to owners, in the ve- 
ry article of '■'■ xirofertij in man," has given the slave a strong guar- 
rantee, from the injustice or violence of others abroad, and for good 
treatment at home. Thus Moses ordains, that if a man smites his 
own servant with a rod and kill him ; yet if the servant live a day 
or two, the master shall not be punished, because the servant was 
*■ his moHzyP That is the reason given by Moses why the master 
under such circumstances, shall go unpunished, because his servant 
•was his money ^ therefore, no malice shall be presumed in the bosom 
of the owner against the life of his slave. Esod. xxi. 21. The Lord 
kuoweth there are few things among men which they love more or 
handle more carefully than their own money. However provoked 
a man may have been with his servant, it is not to be presumed that 
he intended to kill him, because his servant is ]iis oivn money. 

Slaves have no political rights to exercise, but like the women 
and children under the domestic, ecclesiastical, and civil laws, and 
rulers, like the passengers on board a ship, though not officers or 
seamen, though they do not work the vessel of State, yet they en- 
joy the common protection and securities of all on board. 

The dominion over a slave being bodily, founded in law, divine 
and human ; there is no >HO?-a/ slavery in his condition. If he be a 
Christian man. he serves his master, not with a servile spirit, not as 
bowing to a fellow creature, who has no other right than physical 
power to rule over him ; but he renders obedience as to his ruler 
recognized by heaven ; he obeys as serving God and not man. He ren- 
ders a hearty willing obedience, out of a pure conscience, and convic- 
tion of moral duty. He has therefore moral and spiritual freedom ; 
his soul is free. Eph. vi. 5—9. Col. iii. 22—25. When the body of 
Jesus stood bound before Pilate, his spirit was free ; for our great 
examplar bowed in obedience to the law of the land. John, xviii. 12, 
xix. 11. When Pauls body wore a chain, his soul was free, for the 
word of God was not bound. 2. Tim. ii, 9. Soldiers and sailors in 
the army and navy arc under a most absolute dominion ; obedience 
to which is wisely and justly secured by severe penalties. Offenders 



36 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

against the laws of tlieir country, violaters of the rules and regula- 
tions of the public service, should be punished, and degraded from 
the honorable profession of arms, and put to mean and servile em- 
ployments ; they should not be kept upon the roll with men of obe- 
dient, noble, virtuous and patriotic spirits. 

It is the genius and tendency of abolitionism to abolish all pun- 
ishments, the sanctions of law, to destroy all honours, authorities, pre- 
eminences, and dignities ; that it may obtain its own liberty, equali- 
ty, fraternity ! To this end, every thing pertaining to law, justice, 
truth, honour and virtue must be abolished; that nothing may re- 
main but the " ca2nit mortuuvi^^ of a vile humanity. The service of 
men in the army and navy is lairjul, therefore, good sailors and sol- 
diers are free morally ; under the most rigid discipline, their spirits 
are free in the service, and their duties are honourable, moral, use- 
ful, necessary. Should a sailor be seized and carried by violence 
on board a piratical vessel, and compelled to do service tJicre^ so 
long as absolute duress continued, there might be an actual, physi- 
cal obedience. But a moral service there could not be ; where there 
is no law there can be no moral obedience. 

The truth is, after all that has been said, written and sung about 
liberty^ none but those whom the truth and Son of God hath set 
free, are free indeed ; all others are the servants of corruption. John, 
viii. 31 — 37. The real value of political liberty is in its being a pro- 
tection in this world to men in the use and free enjoyment of mor- 
al and religious freedom. 

Nothing is more significant in the movements of vicious radicals, 
disorganizers and revolutionists, than studiously to keep out of view 
the well established, fundamental, political and moral principles in 
the institutions of a people; and striking at some real or imagina- 
ry grievances or abuses, instead of attempting in wisdom, patience 
and self-denial the work of reform ; to strike with their weapons the 
vital parts, and aim to destroy the whole framework of society. 
Thus the abolitionists, passing over the moral law written in the 
Scripture, the political law written in the constitution, and the civil 
law written in the statute books of the States, as though these pre- 
sented no barrier to their imfanious crusade, are always parading 
the absurd dogmas in the preamble to the declaration of indepen- 
dence ; the private sentiments of Jefferson. Franklin, and others ; 
whose ideal theories of poluical philosophy and "the rights of man" 
are of no civil, moral or political value whatever. They are of no 
legal validity, never were and never will be, among any people who 
enjoy and value the blessings and securities of a constitutional and 
legal liberty, and a pure morality and religion. 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 37 

Mr. "Webster, too, whose sentiments may be supposed to represent 
those of the sober North, denounces domestic slavery as " a great 
moral, civil and political evil." "What is moral evil but sin? and what 
is sin but a transgression of the morallaiv ? I John, iii. 4. Sin must 
be confessed and forsaken, or the sinner will never obtain mercy. 
Moral evil is a spiritual thing ; the knowledge of divine truth and 
obedience to the Gospel and law of God is the only salvation from 
it. But Mr. Webster himself admits, that the institution in ques- 
tion is not against the moral law tvritten in the Scriptures. Yet he 
imagines it is some how against t/te spirit of the supreme lawgiver. 
But how can the subject of any ruler, divine or human, know the will 
of his Lord, but by his oum tcord eayresscd ? that is the laiv. The 
servant that turns away from the plain written law, the word of com- 
mand, and chooses rather to follow the " devices, desires and ima- 
ginations of his own heart," and to obey his own conjectures and 
dreams, will be beaten with many stripes. Mr. Webster ought to 
have known that this dodge was a mere abolition quibble. It is al- 
together unworthy of his mind, his heart.his position and his charac- 
ter. He objects, too, (but feebly) that this domestic government 
over slaves, is founded in mere might, in the right of the strong- 
est ; that physical power is its sanction ; that it is not like the king- 
dom the apostle preached ; very true : doubtless the rulers in this 
form of human government are men and not gods. Masters of 
servants have like passions with Mr. Webster ; and if these objec- 
tions commend themselves as valid to his conscience, or to his un- 
derstanding, he should resign his commission as a federal ruler, and 
go home ; and so should all other civil rulers over mankind, who 
entertain such opinions ; for the sanction of all human governments 
is physical force ; in the last analysis it is the sword. 

In the moral argument Mr. Webster's great understanding could 
grasp hold of no premises from which he could, with his logic, hon- 
estly travel to the conclusion he evidently wanted ; therefore, he 
took his conclusion for granted, upon the authority of public senti- 
ment at the North. There was a perfect inanity of ethical truth, 
life and virtue, in his position : yet he took it, and in endeavouring 
to defend it, after a few faint spasms and gasping out a few feeble 
words, about " loving kindness," " meekness" and '■ the apostle," 
be gave it up ! and this great mental elephant, in the moral strug- 
gle, died the death of a mouse, under an exhausted receiver. 

Yet he abides by such a conclusion ! he knows the institution is 
not against civil law, for it is civil law that makes it. He knows it 
is not against political law, for the constitution sanctifies it, and yet 



38 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

he is not asliamed to stand up in his place, and to condemn the writ- 
ten law of God, the written laAV of one half of the States in this 
Union, and the written law of the constitution of his country, and 
to affirm his judgment to be, that they are all evils, great evils, for 
sustaining the domestic government of slavery in this country. True, 
he shelters himself behind the wall of moral sentiment at the North ; 
and the "religious feelings of a considerable portion of mankind." 
Mr. Webster should rather hearken to the voice of the apostle. "If 
thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law but a judge." 
James, iv. 11. 

When " the north and a considerable portion of mankind" are 
our lawgivers and judges, in our domestic and State institutions, we 
will attend to their sentiments ; till then we stand or fall to our own 
master. The truth is, that the least leaven of this abolition moral- 
ity, "leavens the whole lump," pollutes the purity of conscience, de- 
stroys moral and mental liberty ; the least taint of it, therefore, is a 
blight upon honour, candour, truth, justice, wisdom, freedom and 
mercy. Mr. Webster will not vote the proviso, because climate and 
other physical laws will, in his opinion, prevent this institution from 
flourishing in any of the new territories of the Union ; but clearly 
intimates, were it not so, he would vote for the measure. In prin- 
ciple, then, Mr. Webster is an abolitioniyt ; policy only prevents 
his acting with them. It is amazing to me what such a man can do 
with his conscience, his oath, and with the constitution ! Ah, but, 
says Mr. Webster, public sentiment, both north and south, has 
chano-ed very much since the adoption of the Federal Constitution — 
granted ; but has the written Constitution of the country changed ? 
has tlue Imv of the land changed ? Do the unstable and changing 
winds of northern opinion, nullify the laws and constitution of this 
country ? 

Upon the whole, Mr. Webster has fallen back on a position far 
short of what public affairs demanded. In morals, however, Mr. 
Webster is far above and out of sight of such men as Mr. Seward. 
Mr. Webster feels bound in conscience and honour to keep the faith 
of federal treaties and federal covenants ; and, as a ruler, to do as 
he has sworn. 

The sentiments of these two men, probably, shadow forth those 
of the two great parties, to which tliey belong, and which, combined 
with other similar element.*, makeup that ^-puUic opinion'' oi \\\\ic\x 
we hear so much, and wliich threatens to override the laws and in- 
stitutions of the country. 

That opinion, expressed by the press, religious and secular, the 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 39 

voices of Legislatures, and in various other modes, a few months 
ago, could not merely have sanctioned, but absolutely demanded the 
adoption of the AVilmot Proviso. One of the ominous and threat- 
ening features of the abolition heresy, is that its defenders have 
brought their religion with their idol into the i^oUtical temple. 

If a single individual, in any part of tlie United States, were to 
be deprived of bodily liberty or property, on account of his religi- 
ous opinions, moral sentiments, worship or practice, that were not in 
violation of the laios of the land, the whole nation would rise as one 
man in his defence. The people understand the value of the con- 
stitution, as a defence to the bodies and property of individuals* 
and yet so blind and insensible are they to the value of the consti- 
tution, in things pertaining to the moral principles of liberty, to 
State rights, and to the justice due to the sovereign people of the 
States, in their political relations, that the north, east and west have 
formed a coalition to deprive all tlie Southern States of their entire 
inheritance in every part of federal territory, (the common property 
of all the States,) because of a difference in moral sentiment and 
practice, about the institution of slavery- — an institution sanctioned 
by tlie laws of the Southern States, and by the supreme laws of the 
Federal Union. Liberty of conscience is virtually denied to the 
South, upon the penalty of forfeiting their interests in the public 
domain. 

Had the Wilmot proviso (or the poison of its nature) been enacted 
into the form of a law. this thing would have been virtually " a bill 
of attainder," "an ex fost facto law," a law nullifying obligations and 
contracts of the constitution, a union of Church and State, a resur- 
rection and the triumph of those principles which reigned in the 
" Star Chamber," and in '• the High Court of Commissions." Abo- 
lition ideas of liberty, are of a physical or bodily freedom ; sensual 
lawless and atheistic ; and, like similar dreams of the French philoso- 
phers, they terminate in the establishment of mental, moral, civil, 
religious and political despotism, in the worst possible slavery ! So 
blind is might, to what is right ; so blind is ^cill, to what is law and 
justice. " Liberty, equality, and fraternity" is the cry ; not one 
word of truth, justice, law, equity, or mercy ! 

The boundary lines of the empire of Congress are plainly mark- 
ed in the written constitution ; and all powers, sovereign, political 
or civil, not granted, are reserved to the State governments, or to 
the people of the States respectively. History teaches m how im- 
portant and necessary it is. distinctly to mark the geographical 
lines that separate the dominions of neighbouring sovereigns. I'he 



40 EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 

lines that separate State and federal dominions and sovereignty, are 
written down in the book of the Kings ; and can only be discerned 
by the eye of the mind, and the eye royal. How can one of the 
sovereign people in this country, in such a conflict of jurisdiction, 
as that of nullification presented, " keep a conscience void of offence 
toward God and man," unless he knows u-hich the Caesar is to whom 
his allegiance is lawfully due ? In this matter, unless he surrenders 
his mental and moral freedom, he must, himself, go to the founda- 
tions of the government. He must attend to the words written ia 
the federal constitution ; he must enquire for historical facts ; and 
in the best light available, he must determine for himself to whom 
his fealty is due. Doubtless this will require self-denial and men- 
tal labour ; and is not civil, political and religious liberty so dearly 
bought, worth understanding, using, and defending ? It can never 
be enjoyed or maintained, but by those who think it is worth all 
tluxt it Ims cost. 

The aid of the learned is valuable to help us to come to an inde. 
pendent conviction of duty in our own understanding. They are 
generally willing to become our masters and rulers in this affair ; 
but if we submissively bow to their authority, we renounce our per- 
sonal freedom. 

The condition of public affairs, during the tariff excitement in 
South Carolina, compdlecl our citizens to study and search for the 
truth : and the position taken by the convention, and by the citizens 
of this State, in nullifying that pretended law, could never have 
been occupied or maintained, if their confidence had been in any 
man. It was not man worship, it was not Mr. Calhoun and his per- 
sonal influence, but it was a profound conviction of the truth, and a 
sacred reverence of the principles, which that man's life illustrated, 
and which adorned and ennobled his heroic character. 

If South Carolina has had the honour of occupying the for- 
lorn hope, tJie 2KISS of the moral Thermopylae, in the history of the 
liberties of this country, it was not more because Leonidas was her's, 
than that 30,000 of her other sons were Spartans. 

Let us now notice what reverence and obedience is due in consci. 
ence or honour, in morals or law, from free and sovereign citizens of 
the State, to the written dictates of sectional majorities, (without 
the warrant of the constitution.) though clothed in the imposing 
forms of Congressional legislation. 

Let us t^amine, for a moment, the nature of the majority power 
under our system. It is by a covenant that the ballot box is substi- 
tuted for the cartridge box in our country. It is a matter of co}n- 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 41 

pact that men vote, and also what majority shall govern in the vote. 
The right of the majority to govern, i.s, tlierefore, a right that rests 
wholly on covenant. 

The Roman legions having the power, may take the responsibili- 
ty of appointing the Ctiesar ; under our system the physical power 
of the country is invoked iovote^noi to fight for the civil rulers. But 
the nature of the power which apjwints and maintains the civil 
government of a country, is the military power. An election is a 
sham fight, where paper is used instead of lead. When the civil go- 
vernors arc chosen, the lawful power of the legions, (of the voters) is 
at an end ; they/iare exercised a// their political rights, and during 
the term of their offices, our civil rulers are of right independent of 
the people; for they are brought under the obligations of law, mo- 
ral and constitiUional, and they cannot discharge their high duties 
without freedom. 

The constitution expressly ordains, Art L sec. 1. that "all legis- 
lative power herein granted, shall be vested iri a Congress of the 
United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives." 

When, therefore, our federal rulers, instead ot't/wmseh'cs governing 
the country, as they are sworn to do, according to the best of their 
own judgment and ability. and according to the written constitution ; 
hearken to the popular cry ; cut the cords of the moral law which 
bind them ; the cords of the constitution and the bonds of their own 
oath ; when they renounce the legal unction and authority of civil 
ru/crs. and degrade themselves to the servile office of obedience to 
the commands of the majorities who elected them ; when they ask 
and wait for the rescripts of the legions, before they dare to act in le- 
gislation, tlie nature of our government is virtually changed, and the 
military is above the civil power in the system. To that point things 
have been long tending, under the shallow pretext of public opinion, 
and under the influence of the common error that majorities have a 
right bo govern. Majorities have no other right to govern, than 
what they have by compact, in the form and manner and times of 
votifig for their civil rulers^ by the terms of the written State and 
Federal constitutions. 

When rulers, like reeds shaking in the wind, tremble and bend at 
the whispers or clamours of popular majorities ; the political body re- 
semble?^ the natural body of liim who, renouncing the supremacy of the 
law, and the functions of his own understanding and conscience, gives 
himself up as a prey to the seductions or fury of his sensual or ma- 
lignant propensities. Yea even worse, it has not unfrcquently re- 
G 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



44 



EULOGY ON MR. CALHOUN. 



005 815 331 fl* 



The Roman anus demolished the Grecian empire, but Greek liter- 
ature was too much for Roman valour. 

Solomon's counsel stands yet upon record. 

"When thou sittest to eat with a rider^ consider diligently what 
is set before thee, and put a knife to thy throat if thou be a man 
given to appetite. Be not desirous of his dainties, for they are de- 
ceitful meat." 

Fellow citizens. — Perhaps it is due to you to say something about 
the length of my performance. In my preparation I considered the 
times, him of whom, and those to whom, I was to speak. You will 
find my apology, in the occasion, in my theme, and in my audience. 




